How to Display the Most Accurate Comment Count in WordPress

Do you want to display the most accurate comment count in WordPress?

Your WordPress blog may have comments that are pending moderation, spam, trackback and pings. By default, there is no easy way to display the exact comment count on your WordPress site.

In this article, we will show you how to easily display the most accurate comment count in WordPress.

Method 1. Display Comment Count in WordPress Using Plugin

If you are not comfortable with adding code to your WordPress site then this method provides an easy way to display the total comment count on your site including pingbacks and trackbacks.

First, you need to install and activate the Simple Blog Stats plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

The plugin provides a bunch of shortcodes that you can use anywhere on your WordPress website to display different stats about your site. For instance, you can display the total number of posts, users, or comments.

You can view all the shortcodes by visiting Settings » Simple Blog Stats page.

To display the total count of all approved comments on your website you can use the following shortcode:

[sbs_approved]

After that, you can view your website and you’ll be able to see the total comment count of all approved comments on your website.

The problem with this method is that it does include all the approved pings and trackbacks in your WordPress comment count.

These days, most websites turn off trackbacks and pings due to block spam comments in WordPress. To learn more see our complete guide on WordPress trackbacks and pings and how to disable them.

However, if you want to keep the trackbacks and pings enabled on your website, then you may want to use the next method which wouldn’t include them in your comment count.

Method 2. Manually Display Most Accurate Comment Count in WordPress

This method requires you to add custom code to your WordPress website. If you haven’t done this before, then take a look at our guide on how to copy and paste code snippets in WordPress.

First, you need to paste the following code to your WordPress site:

function wpbeginner_comment_count() { 

function comment_count( $count ) {
	if ( ! is_admin() ) {
		$comments_by_type = &separate_comments(get_comments('status=approve'));
		return count($comments_by_type['comment']);
	} else {
		return $count;
	}
}
add_filter('get_comments_number', 'comment_count', 0);

$actual_comment_count = get_comments_number(); 

return $actual_comment_count;

}

add_shortcode('actual_comment_count', 'wpbeginner_comment_count'); 

This code creates a shortcode that you can now use anywhere on your website to display the total number of comments on your site excluding the trackbacks, pings, and unapproved comments.

Simply add the following shortcode anywhere you would like to display the comment count:

[actual_comment_count]

Here is how it looked on our test site:

You can also use this shortcode in your WordPress theme templates using the following code:

<?php echo do_shortcode('[actual_comment_count]'); ?>

Showing comment count for a specific WordPress post

What if you wanted to display the accurate comment count for a single post or page? For instance, you may be creating a custom WordPress theme and want to display it in the comments template.

Simply add the following code to your functions.php file or using the custom code snippets plugin.

function wpbeginner_post_comment_count() { 
 
function comment_count( $count ) {
    if ( ! is_admin() ) {
global $post; 
        $comments_by_type = &separate_comments(get_comments('status=approve&post_id='. $post->ID ));
        return count($comments_by_type['comment']);
    } else {
        return $count;
    }
}
add_filter('get_comments_number', 'comment_count', 0);
 
$actual_comment_count = get_comments_number(); 
 
return $actual_comment_count;
 
}
 
add_shortcode('post_comment_count', 'wpbeginner_post_comment_count');

This code also creates a shortcode that you can use anywhere on your website to display the current post’s comment count.

Simply add the following shortcode to the post or page where you want to display comment count:

[post_comment_count]

Alternately, you can also use it inside your WordPress theme template files by using the following code:

<?php echo do_shortcode('[post_comment_count]'); ?>

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily display the most accurate comment count in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to get more comments on your WordPress website.

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